Lady Vols' Mercedes Russell, Jaime Nared share lessons from U.S. team experience

Tennessee's Mercedes Russell and Jaime Nared benefited as much from making USA Basketball's U23 women's team this summer as they did playing for the squad.

Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick said as much on Monday. She was saying a lot, considering Russell and Nared both started all three games for the U.S. team earlier this month in the inaugural Four Nations Tournament in Tokyo.

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Russell, a 6-foot-6 senior center, was the team's leading rebounder, averaging 6.3 per game. Nared, a 6-2 senior forward, averaged 7.3 points per game. She led a fast break and threaded a highlight-worthy pass to Russell for a layup during a 103-71 victory over host Japan in the final game.        

Russell and Nared were among 12 players chosen from a training camp roster of 36, comprising what U23 coach Jeff Walz described as "some of the best talent in today's college game."

"That was some talent going after each other," Warlick said during a media availability session at the Ray & Lucy Hand Digital Studio.

The training camp was held in Colorado Springs, Colo., and Warlick said the players were divided into teams for scrimmages.

"I watched some of those games, and it was a little brutal," Warlick said. "They went after each other. I think that was a very difficult team to pick. The talent was really special."

Russell indicated the team practices were as beneficial as the tournament.

"The competition was very high, especially during tryouts," she said.

Nared referenced the Colorado Springs tryouts in saying, "You definitely see what you need to improve on."

Nared said a fringe benefit from training camp was a talk by former U.S. national team coach Geno Auriemma, who also coaches the Connecticut Huskies. She knew of him in the context of the Tennessee-Connecticut rivalry but never had spoken with him.

"Just to hear him speak and what he had to say, especially about kids our age, just his perspective, it was really enlightening," Nared said. "... I agreed with a lot of what he said."

Auriemma shared an anecdote about a timeout during a game when he was yelling at his players. After the timeout, the players gathered again on the court before play resumed. One of the players told Auriemma that the message in their huddle was "to focus on themselves and to not take what he said to heart."

Nared thought the players' reaction was funny but also useful.

"Obviously our coaches want to help us, but at the end of the day there's just five people on the court," Nared said. "And you really have to count on each other and rely on each other, especially in games."